1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to theme or amusement park rides with video or projected images, and, more particularly, to ride designs that use vehicles to move passengers through a themed attraction or ride with show portions and that use doors or other devices to separate and/or isolate various segments of the ride or show (e.g., to block light and/or sound from traveling along a track with the passenger vehicles or to prevent or minimize mixing of ride or show segments).
2. Relevant Background
Millions of people visit amusement parks each year, and park operators seek rides to attract new and returning visitors to their parks including rides that make their parks unique compared with their competitors' parks. In theme and other amusement parks, most attractions utilize vehicles even when the attraction is a walk-through or slower ride because vehicles or people movers are useful for delivering entertainment to large numbers of guests (e.g., some rides have theoretical capacities of hundreds and even thousands of guests per hour) and maintain throughput or flow of the guests or passengers through the rides. Many rides include a slower portion or segment to allow them to easily provide a “show” in which animation, movies, three-dimensional (3D) effects and displays, audio, and other effects are presented in a carefully timed or synchronized manner to vehicles proceeding through such show portions. The show portions of rides are often run or started upon sensing the presence of a vehicle and are typically designed to be most effective when vehicles travel through the show portion at a particular speed such as several feet per second (or a typical walking pace or somewhat faster or slower).
In a typical show or theme ride, guests or passengers may walk into and through a pre-show area (e.g., a queue or waiting area) in which video or other effects such as animatronics are used to introduce the story or show to be provided during the ride. The guests then enter a loading area where they are loaded into a series of vehicles or people movers. The vehicles, which may be attached to a drive chain or cable, are moved along a track that is divided up into a number of show segments or portions. Some rides include video effects such as three-dimensional (3D) videos, and images are projected upon screens that are typically positioned along the walls or ceilings near the moving vehicles. To provide better viewing of these displayed images, the vehicles may be complex and costly such as vehicles with many moving parts and degree of freedom (DOF) motors to rotate the vehicle to view screens to the left or to the right of the moving vehicle. Vehicles may also include doors, roofs, and/or windows to direct the guests to view in a particular direction or to provide limited, directed line of sight toward show aspects. The projected images are preferably closely synchronized to the location and rate of travel of the vehicles, and this may require numerous sensors to determine the location of the vehicles and controllers to precisely start and stop projection of images based on sensed vehicle locations. For rides with 3D projected video, the passengers may also be given 3D glasses to wear. The show effects may also include animatronics and a set to add to the 3D effect or realism of displayed images.
It is typically desirable to separate the various show segments or portions to isolate the audio and lights associated with each segment to a particular length of the track, e.g., such that passengers can only see one show segment at a time. Rides may be configured to provide show segmentation and isolation by providing a circuitous path for the track with differing show segments provided in different “rooms” or along various lengths of track that may be separated by a bend or two in the track. Such an open track design may not prevent sounds and lights from traveling between these “rooms” or sections of the track especially in particularly loud shows or ones with bright lighting effects or displays. The bleed over or mixing of show segments may ruin the show effect for lead or trail vehicles or at least detract from the overall ride enjoyment for some of the guests.
To better isolate various show segments, the ride design may include doors or other barriers between neighboring show segments. For example, a door (e.g., a show action door) may be provided in a show tunnel that is operated to open to allow a series of vehicles to move from one show segment or room to another and then operated to close. The door may be a two-part door with each side or half hung on hinges and moved or swung open with hydraulic devices in response to a sensor detecting an approaching vehicle. The show action doors are desirable within the attraction for defining and isolating the individual scenes and for controlling light and sound. Unfortunately, these action doors may be expensive to design, install, and maintain due to the mechanical drive systems and electronic and optical sensors and/or control elements. Further and in some cases more importantly, existing show action doors are often undesirable because opening and closing them can be too loud, e.g., the hydraulic actuators used to open and close the doors typically generate noises that are heard by passengers in the vehicles that may distract the passengers from the show features and these noises are difficult to mask.
Hence, there remains a need for theme ride designs that provide effective ways to separate one show or ride segment from another and that support display of video images. Preferably, such ride designs would provide a very quiet way of isolating the show segments to limit distractions that may effect a passenger's or guest's enjoyment of a theme ride or ride with a show portion.